


Unfortunately, I may have enchanted you. yeah sorry about that?

by Evilblue



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Arthur Knows About Merlin's Magic (Merlin), Love Confessions, Love Potion/Spell, M/M, Merlin's Magic Revealed (Merlin), Misunderstandings, Spells & Enchantments, kilgharrah isn't as vague as he could be
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-18
Updated: 2019-12-18
Packaged: 2021-02-17 22:29:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21850729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Evilblue/pseuds/Evilblue
Summary: Arthur starts to behave strangely, and merlin being an expert on 'strange' thinks he might accidentally have enchanted Arthur.oops?
Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 357





	Unfortunately, I may have enchanted you. yeah sorry about that?

The first time it happens, it’s really not that much of a grand gesture, it’s really quite tiny so you can’t really blame Merlin for not picking up on it.  
Merlin knows he’s clumsy everyone knows he’s clumsy, so Arthur is bound to know too.  
This time it’s when Merlin is carrying Arthur’s armour to the clearing. His foot catches on the uneven ground and he falls face first in the mud surrounding the training field.  
Great.  
Merlin is mostly sulking over the fact that he’ll have to re-polish the entire armour, again. And so doesn’t notice Arthur walked his way and is standing now in front of him.  
To strong arms lift him up, and out of nowhere Artur pulls a white handkerchief.  
He then goes to delicately brush off the earth and grime on Merlin’s face, careful not to actually touch him. And Merlin only manages to stare at him directly in his eyes. Saying nothing.  
When Arthur is satisfied he, pulls away the cloth, looks anywhere but at merlin’s face and walks back to his group of knights to resume training.  
Merlin blinks a few more times, and then snaps out of it.  
He gathers the armour previously disregarded on the floor. And walks back to the armoury where he keeps his polish, while trying to look less emotionally stunted than he actually feels.  
All that goes though his head for the next few hours is.  
“that was nice.”

The second time it happens it’s late in the afternoon.  
He and Arthur just came back from a hunting trip just the two of them, as Arthur thought it’d be a good idea to slump though the bandit-infested woods alone, with only his trusty servant for protection.  
Not that Merlin had told Arthur about his magic yet, so for all Arthur knew, he himself: the prince of Camelot was the only protection of, the prince of Camelot.  
Brilliant, really Arthur.  
“It’s like he lives for the sole purpose of making my life harder.” Merlin thought.  
But at least this time nothing had gone wrong, no bandits, no sorcerers, and no unicorn-related curses, so merlin counted himself lucky despite his mud-worn shoes and overall exhaustion.  
But then Arthur stops him before they can ride past the gate, he turns around awkwardly in his saddle and starts rummaging through in of his bags.

“Here” he says then, his expression wide, arms outstretched and holding a tiny arrangement of flowers.  
“for me?” merlin says eyes wide.  
“yes, it’s yours.”  
“I thought you might like it.” Arthur says a bit too loud as if he’s accusing Merlin. And his grin fades a bit.  
He’s quick to answer then. “Oh I do, thank you!”  
Arthur’s smile returns. “You’re welcome.”

They ride further under the gate and hand their horses to the stable boys. Arthur doesn’t give him a chance to talk any further of… of whatever happened just outside the gate.  
When Merlin walks back to his room he has plenty of time to admire the flowers, and concludes that, while his earlier observation naming it an arrangement had been a little far-fetched, the flowers are a wild combination of just about every colour and length, Arthur did seem to have spent some time picking specific flowers, Merlin recognises most of them from the trip they made that day.  
And suddenly the random conversation earlier that afternoon, of merlin’s favourite flowers makes sense, and Arthur had taken the information to heart. Merlin recognises some bluebell, and a few wood sorrels.  
And to know; Arthur spend all this time carefully selecting flowers they came across, apparently knowing them from merlin’s descriptions. It makes his heart swell.  
It makes him feel like it could mean something, like maybe, possibly there is this tiny chance Arthur could maybe grow to care for him, like he does for Arthur.  
It’s highly improbably but it’s there.

The third time it happens merlin starts to get worried.  
About a week after the second incident, Arthur shows up at his room with two plates of food.  
He invites himself into Gaius’s quarters which, “Merlin” isn’t that strange, because he’s the prince, he can go wherever he wants “Merlin.” Arthur makes sure to tell him.  
They have pleasant a conversation. But it feels just a bit out of place.  
Arthur asks Merlin how his day was. Merlin answers that Arthur knows how his day was, since Arthur gets to decide whatever chores are for him to complete that day.  
Arthur looks away and forces down an apology. But he can’t fool Merlin, because Merlin has known Arthur for years and is perhaps the only person who knows him as well, as he knows himself. No, you can’t fool Merlin.  
They talk a bit more, about trivial things. Merlin tries to ask Arthur about his day too, even though he knows exactly what happened because, too. They stutter about their conversation, often not completing questions or sounding out answers. Merlin is enjoying himself despite that.  
It’s weird to see Arthur behaving so awkwardly.  
Merlin opts to let it go, for a moment, sure that he’ll find the answer sooner or later. He’d rather resume his delicious meal.

It’s then that Merlin notices what they’re actually eating.  
It’s chicken, chicken with a rose layer to the side..  
And, oh no, this all seems way too familiar. It makes too much sense. Because merlin has seen Arthur like this before…  
When Arthur was enchanted to be in love with Vivian.  
He tried to feed her food then too, and he was all sappy, and, oh no.. the flowers from the other day, it’s all so clear now,  
It was so out of place, Merlin was taken aback because it wasn’t real.  
Arthur is cursed to be in love with merlin.  
Oh no..  
Merlin’s head over heels for Arthur. The Arthur that has a kind heart, quick wit, and very rarely quite by accident, manages to show those qualities to Merlin.  
He’d love to be Arthur’s, to have Arthur be his.  
But not like this, not when Arthur’s heart isn’t truly in it. Not when it’s not actually him.  
So Merlin does the most sensible thing in this situation: without any explanation, He stands up, shoves his chair back. He flees the room and leaves Arthur alone with his half-eaten chicken and the dishes.

Merlin dashes through the castle halls, and slips out to have a proper freak-out in the forest.  
Once in the shadows provided by the calm forest. Merlin slows his pace and pauses to think.

The problem is, Merlin was very sure no one in the castle has been casting any enchantments over the past few weeks.  
Merlin has gotten pretty good at detecting magic, not only magic objects, but also castings of spells.  
So he is sure, very sure, that there’s no one who performed an enchantment on Arthur, and that could only mean one thing.  
Merlin did it.

He somehow enchanted Arthur to love him, without meaning too.  
And by the gods that’s sad, because not only has he violently altered his best friend’s thoughts and feelings, he has done so without noticing himself. He is apparently really that desperate.  
The whole point of traveling to Camelot. was to learn to control his magic. And Merlin thought he did, for the most part he managed to always use words for incarnations.  
He hadn’t let his magic get away from him in ages.  
Merlin isn’t even sure when all of this happened.  
Arthur only started to act strangely since last week.  
Once back in the castle and checking Arthur hadn’t wait up for him, Merlin slips back into Gaius’s rooms.  
Because now that Merlin has identified the problem he needs to deal with it. And that means another night of looking up different potions and enchantments, and their counter spells.

When Merlin stormed out of the room, Arthur thought nothing of it.  
He had done nothing wrong, dinner was perfect, the chicken was perfect. He’d taken a bath so merlin couldn’t have been appalled at his smell, for the first twenty or so minutes Arthur managed to convince himself that merlin had probably left because of a bad stomach ache. 

When he hadn’t come back after an hour, Arthur beckoned a servant to deliver the half-eaten dishes at the kitchens. And silently left.  
He’d have a new chance tomorrow.

The next day Arthur wakes up early with renewed vigour. The sun has yet to rise, and the castle air is cold, but Arthur is sure he knows what really happened yesterday.  
Surely Merlin was just overwhelmed by the Princes gestures. Probably only now realising how serious Arthur is with this courtship.  
Merlin probably left because the overwhelming implications and emotions paired with being courted by the heir to the throne.  
Well it’s a daring position. The position of consort attracts all sorts of attention. By the court as well as bandits and other criminals.  
His father would probably also have something to say on the subject.  
But Arthur had thought long and hard about this, He had read Merlin’s reactions carefully. And came to the conclusion that they both shared feelings for each other.  
Merlin would be an excellent partner. He is a kind man, honourable, brave, and he knows how to make Arthur laugh. Something he had come to appreciate more than he ever thought he would. Whenever tense moments arise, merlin is there. In one way or another, with his jokes, or advise, or even with a sword and all disastrous consequences that inadvertently come with.  
Merlin is the full package, And if the prospect of joining the high-court had scared him away. Arthur would just have to prove he was worth it.  
That brings him to the plan for today,  
Dinner wasn’t well received, probably to elaborate for Merlin’s tastes. In hindsight it wasn’t the greatest idea to let the cook do all the work for him, Though merlin would hardly be the person to value hard-labour. He would in fact likely appreciate a gift with meaning.  
So onto personal gift making it is then.  
Since Arthur had known him, Merlin always had some sort of neckerchief with him. But his most resent one had started to come apart around the edges.  
So what better solution than to make him a new one.  
Arthur carefully selects one of his garments, one not so new as to arise suspicion in the court, raising the question: where merlin managed to get such a garment from, no, Arthur had to ease him in. The whole court-gossip was not for the faint of heart, and until Merlin confirmed their relationship, Arthur would not make anything harder on him than it should.  
But neither does he want to choose a shirt too old or too tattered to be of use to Merlin. For obvious reasons.  
So Arthur chooses one of his red shirts and gets to work.  
He has a pair of scissors delivered to him and cuts a rectangle right out of the front of his shirt. He then uses the need and tread Gwen had lend him. And secures the ends of the fabric like Gwen had shown him how to do one her dress.  
Finally he spends a painstakingly large amount of time, trying to write his name on the inside. ‘from Arthur’ He tries he really does but in the end it’s behind difficult to read. And after pricking his fingers enough to draw blood Arthur doesn’t feel up to trying again, this is as good as it’s going to get.  
Arthur is proud of himself for managing at all with only candle light to guide him.  
So when a few minutes later the door opens Arthur is happy to greet Merlin. Only it isn’t Merlin who comes through the door opening. It’s another servant, of whom Arthur doesn’t know the name yet.  
“Good morning, sire. I hadn’t expected you to be awake yet. Another servant will be here with your food shortly-.”  
But Arthur is already out of his room and on his way to Gaius. If Merlin doesn’t want to come to him then he’ll come to Merlin. He’ll resume his plan of giving personalised gifts before doing anything more elaborate.  
When he’s at Gaius’s door the physician doesn’t let him in. Gaius is constantly looking over his shoulder and probably having a silent conversation with Merlin.  
So Merlin is not ready to speak with him yet. That’s okay. He hasn’t told him no. Merlin is still overwhelmed probably. Probably.  
Arthur contemplates giving the neckerchief to Gaius to pass on to Merlin. But opts out of it. He’d like to see Merlin’s face when he gets his gift.  
Arthur will have to be patient. He can do patient.  
“Tell Merlin I was here.” Because apparently Arthur can not completely let it go.  
And then walks down the hall.

He sees Merlin twice more later that day, one time while returning from the training fields. And once when walking to the counsel chamber. Both times Merlin decides to hide. -badly he might add- behind a wall or tapestry.  
Arthur leaves him be.  
It’s probably not him at fault. Merlin is probably only nervous,

Probably. 

Merlin was getting nowhere,  
Looking through Gaius’s books, didn’t seem to help much. There were more than eighty-two love curses, applied by casting. But Merlin found none that used non-verbal magic. He could use some of the counter spells on Arthur to see if they worked. But half the pages were stamped with warnings of mixing wrong spells and counter spells. So Merlin didn’t want to take the risk.  
In the meantime Arthur refuses to leave him alone.  
He had come looking for him twice that day. And Merlin only barely managed to avoid him by hiding. The spell must be getting worse. He needs to end this now.

And so Merlin, with more questions than answers and no idea where to start, ends up in the dragon’s cave under the castle.  
Where the great dragon already waits for him.  
“Young warlock, it pleases me to see you…” He pauses. ”Am I correct when I say the relationship between you and the young king has changed?” He says, while sounding so incredibly smug, in a way Merlin only ever heard the dragon accomplish.  
“Yes, I may have accidentally enchanted Arthur.” Merlin said his voice small and curling in on himself.  
The dragon laughs in his face, hard. Merlin rolls his eyes.  
“Enchanted, he is indeed.”  
“Well, how do I fix it?” Merlin says impatience barely rising in his voice.  
“Would you truly want to?” The dragon replies, as if disappointed in Merlin to have the actual human decency to NOT want to enchant your best friend to love him.  
“Yes, yes I do. I don’t want him to falsely love me. I don’t want to trap him, I don’t want this to be fake.” The words tumbling out of his mouth. “I need to reverse this.” He said and it sounded so final to his own ears.  
It had been a long day, And merlin is starting to feel sorry for himself, how is it that he manages to be so utterly lonely, that his conscious decides to bewitch the man he loves. It’s utterly unfair to everyone involved. Well as Gaius once said, Merlin’s truly one of a kind.  
“You seek to answer the question of how to reverse self-made spells.” The dragon said, not as dismissive as merlin expected him to answer. “You humans have researched centuries what word combinations, equal what results, and how to reverse those,” Merlin stares expectantly.  
“Your magic however, is more akin to mine. You don’t need words to bind your magic, nor the magic around you. You are magic in all her forms and when you tell it something, it will listen.”  
“Talk to him young warlock, that may be all you need to do.”  
Then the great dragon proceeds to fly away, as if he hadn’t for once in his life managed to give some manageable advice.

The next time merlin sees Arthur, is the next morning on his way to his rooms. With a tray of breakfast fresh from the kitchens. With a good enough feeling about the day, no words to memorise, or books to research for today. Apparently willing Arthur to return to normal should be enough.  
Arthur walks right past him, with a murderous pace, presumably heading for merlin’s rooms to scold him, or something about the avoidance of the day before.  
Merlin doesn’t blame him.  
Because of the whole at-first-I-belived-this-to-be-real-but-now-I-know-you-are-enchanted-so-I-don’t-want-it-to-be-like-this-situation…  
Merlin had indeed given Arthur some very mixed signals.

Arthur stops comically fast, when he sees the servant he’d just passed is his servant Merlin.  
Merlin notices how early Arthur must have forced himself to wake, to be able to talk to him in to morning. And be up at the same time as the servants. Arthur was decidedly not a morning person, so while Merlin appreciated the sentiment and had counted on being early enough to reverse the enchantment in Arthur’s sleep. So much for that plan, he had to wait an entire day befor-  
“Merlin!”  
Arthur interrupts him rudely, and immediately after, noticed all the people around him.  
“Let’s go to my rooms.” He says in a lowered voice.  
“Yes sire, that’s where I was headed… Sire.”  
Arthur looked taken aback by his overexerted use of formality, “Let’s go.”  
Once in Arthur’s Quarters, Merlin sets down his plate and moves to the door as quick as he can. Not quick enough apparently, because Arthur calls for him again, before he can even cross the room.  
“Merlin I have something for you.” Arthur says in a tone, way too sweet for the arrogant prat, he had come to know and love. All the more reason to remove the enchantment as soon as possible.  
Maybe Merlin can do it here and now. No need to wait until Arthur was asleep. No need for another whole day of him-avoiding-Arthur. And Arthur-chasing-him.  
He doesn’t need his voice….If he can just hide his eyes.

Merlin waits a bit before turning around to face Arthur, and in those moments he calls for his magic. And he desperately wishes for Arthur to get back to normal already. He feels his magic reaching out, But he also feels it fail to connect to anything.  
He tries again and again, and fails each time.  
Slowly he turns to face Arthur, he can’t stand crouched in front of the door forever.  
“Sorry, Sire I have other duties to attend too.”  
And then decides that’s enough of a explanation to ‘fake Arthur’. Because it’s easy to think of him like that.  
Merlin than sprints out of the room, Because it’s less than easy to be in the same room as Arthur. He thinks he’s not being too unfair.

Arthur watches as Merlin slams the door in his face behind him, and decides then and there that he’s not letting this go, because it isn’t fair.  
Merlin is allowed to take his time, Arthur won’t blame him, won’t impose.  
Arthur will act like he’s dumb when a decidedly Merlin-shaped bump greets him from behind a tapestry.  
Merlin is allowed his freak-out.  
But why would Merlin decide not to tell Arthur about any of it. Merlin is the one always pestering him about emotions in the first place. So why does he get to ignore his own rule. No, nope. Arthur won’t stand for it.

Arthur needs to talk to him, Because all this ignoring, this constant avoidance feels very much like a rejection. And Arthur would rather Merlin tells him directly, so he can react and reflect and be done with it.  
So morning training be damned, Arthur needs to follow Merlin.  
He’s only a few steps behind him. When Merlin sneakily manages to avoid all of the guards. And Arthur questions how often Merlin’s done this before. Escaping the palace that is.  
Because before Arthur knows it their in a clearing just outside of Camelot. Without anyone noticing. 

Merlin sits on the ground, He doesn’t collapse. He’s not hysterical. He sits himself down, calm and proper and then lets a few tears escape and fall to the ground.  
Merlin persists, he is not hysterical. It’s just. The past days have been a bit much. He went from: Maybe Arthur likes me to, god I enchanted my best friend.  
And then he went a night without sleep to research about the enchantment.  
So Merlin is not hysterical, But he might not be the most stable person in Camelot now.

Arthur’s still in love with him. Merlin didn’t feel any magical change, and he might have figured out why that is. There can only be one explanation.  
The dragon said he had to ask his magic for the result he wanted, He had to will his magic to work. And Merlin might just be to much in love in Arthur for that to work, he doesn’t want Arthur to be out of love with him,  
Oh god Merlin is a horrible person. He’d rather have his friend enchanted, than to be hurt by his feelings.  
Speaking of hurt feelings Merlin wonders how Arthur would react in this state if he were to tell him about his magic.

Ha, Maybe that’d break the enchantment. No true love’s kiss, More something like a true friends betrayal.  
Merlin wonders why everything around Arthur has to be a lie.  
His magic, his stupid enchantment.

So maybe Merlin is wallowing in his own misery just a bit. That’s probably why he doesn’t notice Arthur walking up to him until he casts a shadow on him.

Merlin looks up, And it’s really not fair.  
Arthur looks just ethereal with the sun shining from behind him, it’s light creating a hallow of shorts. Which really shouldn’t alter Merlin’s state of mind, because he knows Arthur is no saint. He is quite the prat. Always scolding Merlin, giving him more chores than necessary, and often insulting him. But he doesn’t have to look so beautiful doing it.

“Merlin?” Again his voice is so hesitant and Merlin, isn’t used to it. Doesn’t want it. His sick of Arthur acting so out of place.

“No.”

Not that it matters what he says, apparently while under a love spell Arthur still feels the need to override his every request.

“What’s wrong.” Arthur says, slowly sitting down next to him. His arm wavering over his shoulders, probably questioning whether to hug him or stay far, far away.

And Merlin is really not hysterical, he’s not. But all the crying, and moping may have made him slightly delirious.

“You’re enchanted, and I can’t stop it.” Arthur blinks confused at that.  
“That’s ridiculous I’m not enchanted.” Disbelief in his voice.  
“No, You are.”  
“Stop it Merlin.”  
“No I won’t. You’re enchanted and it’s my fault!” he swallows lowly. “Because I can’t stop it.”  
Arthur pauses for a moment, probably trying to take that all in. Merlin wonders whether he gave away too much.  
“I can assure you I’m not enchanted.” “I would know.” He says, and dear this is getting difficult. There is still disbelief there. How can Arthur not know after.. after everything?  
“You wouldn’t.”  
“I would.”  
Merlin scoffs, “You couldn’t tell a sorcerer form a tree if asked.”  
“I’ve battled plenty of sorcerers. I can tell them apart.”

Honestly Merlin is getting annoyed at this point.  
“You think you’re so smart…” he starts  
“Merlin..”  
“No you do. You think nothing get’s past you. But you don’t even notice you’re enchanted!”

“Why would you think I’m enchanted? Is that why you’ve been acting so strangely the past few hours?” Arthur shoots back.  
“You’re enchanted to love me.”  
“I am not.” Indignancy rising up in his voice.  
“I accidentally enchanted you to love me!” “Don’t you see how serious this is??!”  
“Merlin. You have magic?”  
Oh oh fu-  
Well merlin is in over his head. Let’s try and save this one.  
“NO! Well actually yes. But no, If you are going to remember this, no magic here. Not a drop, not a spark of magic here!”  
Very clever Merlin, that’ll fool him for sure.

Arthur looks away and places a hand on the bridge of his nose.  
“We’ll talk about the magic later. But first: Why would you enchant me?”  
“I didn’t mean to!” “My magic just goes of on it’s own sometimes. I can control it mostly! I’m not dangerous. I -I just don’t know what happened.”

Arthur sighs again. He’s strangely calm again and it sets merlin on edge.  
“So hypothetically, how would you break the spell?”  
Merlin gulps  
“Well that’s the thing it’s not really a spell I used more of a thought, a very accidental thought, that I really really didn’t mean to think, that though-“  
“MERLIN!” Arthur puts a stop to his rambling.  
“Okay, well, I already tried breaking it but I felt nothing. It didn’t work.”  
“Okay, so listen. If you already tried breaking the enchantment. And nothing happened… wouldn’t it be logical to assume. There was no enchantment in the first place?”  
And he turns to face merlin slowly as if trying to get a point across. Merlin would be insulted if..only…

Merlin is silent, looking at Arthur to make sure he didn’t just mishear that. Because holy shit Arthur may have a point there.

“oh,”  
“Oh?” Arthur quirks an eyebrow.  
“Yes that could… wow?” Merlin ends the sentence like a question.

“You like me?!” he shrieks. 

“Yes by the gods Merlin! glad you finally noticed!” Arthur waves his arms around as if telling a story to an audience.

“Oh my god, You like me!”  
“yes.” He nods  
“You love me!”  
“Yes I do.” He doesn’t hesitate.

“wow. I like you too.”  
Arthur smiles. ”I’m happy to hear that.”  
He scoots over closer to merlin and takes his hand.  
“Now Merlin, tell me why to only way you could imagine me loving you. Is under the influence of magic.”  
“th-“  
“No actually, I’d rather you tell me about your actual magic itself.”

“Hey Arthur.”  
“ I have magic.”  
“You’re not in danger, and you’ll never will be from me.”  
…  
“oh”  
…  
“Can I kiss you Merlin? “  
“Yes.”

And they did.

“Hey Arthur?”  
Arthur moves back slowly, to look merlin in the eyes.  
“yes?.”  
“I was born with it.”  
“I know.”

“How?” Merlin says softly.  
Arthur smirks as he says: “You are not the only one who makes secretive trips to the dragon.”

**Author's Note:**

> I guess I did this?  
> It was fun to imagine. I litterally went like.. what if merlin thought he'd enchanted arthur??? can you imagine all the missunderstandings???
> 
> And the I thought, okay so what if instead of searcing for it... i write it myself???
> 
> I thnk it turned out okay. If anyone wants to write the same thing.  
> PLEASE DO!  
> (and send me the link:) )


End file.
